Nepal court blocks army officer's promotion

(January 4, 2010) Nepal's highest court has blocked the promotion of a senior army officer implicated in rights abuses against Maoist rebels during the country's civil war. The government announced last month it was appointing Toran Jung Bahadur Singh to the rank of lieutenant general, second-highest post in the army, despite strong opposition from rights groups and the opposition Maoist party. But the Supreme Court on Sunday ordered Singh's promotion to be halted after a group of Maoist supporters filed a writ saying the move went against the spirit of the 2006 peace agreement ending the decade-long conflict. The court has asked the government to be present at the court on January 10 for the hearing of the case. Singh was in charge of a military camp where 49 Maoists disappeared in 2003 and 2004, during the civil war. In 2006, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR) released a report accusing his battalion of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance of the former rebels. Although Singh was not directly involved in the disappearances, the OHCHR held him accountable as he was in charge of the camp. The army has made no comment on the accusations. At least 16,000 people died in Nepal's decade-long bloody civil war between Maoist rebels and the state, which ended in 2006.